A brief history

1927 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded - by "a handful of film artists and studio visionaries devoted to the improvement and advancement of their craft" according to the official website, Oscar.com, but according to David Shipman in his History of Cinema, it was started by Louis B Mayer in an attempt to prevent unionisation of actors and studio workers.

1929 Tickets for the first Oscar ceremony in May 16, 1929, cost $10 each. There were 250 guests for the banquet held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel. Films were eligible for competition if they had been released in Los Angeles between August 1927 and June 1928.

Fifteen statuettes were awarded, all of them to men - except for Janet Gaynor's best actress nod. In the second year, the number of awards was reduced to seven - two for acting and one each for best picture, directing, writing, cinematography and art direction. The first best picture went to Wings, the only silent to win the award. It features two first world war pilots (both lead actors did their own air stunts).

1934 Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky used the name Oscar in his column in reference to Katharine Hepburn's first best actress award. But the origins of the nickname Oscar aren't clear. A popular story has been that an Academy librarian and eventual executive director, Margaret Herrick, thought it resembled her uncle Oscar and said so; and that the Academy staff began referring to it as Oscar. Initially he was solid bronze; for a while plaster, and today gold-plated britannium, a metal alloy. He stands 13½in tall and weighs 8½lb.

1938 Walt Disney received an Oscar and seven miniature statuettes when he was honoured for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

1940 Guests arriving for the Oscar ceremony could buy the 8.45pm edition of the Los Angeles Times, which announced the winning achievements before the statuettes were presented. As a result, the sealed-envelope system was adopted the next year.

1953 The Oscars were first televised live from Hollywood with Bob Hope as master of ceremonies and from the NBC International Theatre in New York with Fredric March making the presentations.

1966 The Oscars were first broadcast in colour.

1969 The 41st Academy Awards ceremonies moved to the brand new Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Centre of Los Angeles County. The Awards remained at the Music Centre until 1986, when the ceremonies returned to the Shrine Auditorium for the 60th and 61st Awards. Since then the Awards have moved back and forth between the Shrine and the Music Centre. A new venue, located at the corner of the Hollywood and Highland boulevards, is currently being constructed as a permanent home for the awards; it's hoped that it will be in use for the 2002 ceremony.